EU
joins U.S. in raising threat of sanctions against Sudan
over Darfur violence

AFGHANISTAN

After
months of delay, NATO approved sending two extra battalions
to Afghanistan to help provide security during presidential
elections scheduled for October. Troops from Spain
and Italy will arrive in Afghanistan by September and remain
for about two months, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop
Scheffer said in a statement. The election is planned
for Oct. 9. The decision, made late Friday by ambassadors
at NATO headquarters, appeared to fall short by about a third
of promises made by alliance leaders in June for an additional
3,500 troops. Cdr. Chris Henderson, a spokesman for the NATO-led
peacekeeping force in the Afghan capital of Kabul, said another
battalion would be on standby as part of a reserve contingent
outside the country. A battalion has between 600 and 1,000
soldiers. "NATO has not failed in meeting its
commitment," he insisted. But he conceded it
was not yet decided which countries would supply the outside
reserve force. Officials at NATO headquarters also could not
say who would provide the roughly 500 additional troops to
beef up five so-called provincial reconstruction teams, which
are designed to help the central government extend its authority
across the country. "It's not really clear exactly,"
said Lt. Col. Ludger Terbrueggen, spokesman at NATO's military
headquarters in southern Belgium. But, he said, "we need
a little bit more to get to 3,500." (AP 241040
Jul 04)

BALKANS

Two
Belgrade newspapers reported at the weekend that two Serbs
wanted by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague were ready
to give themselves up, a move that would relieve
some of the international pressure on the country. The daily
Kurir on Saturday said former Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadzic,
who vanished as soon as his indictment was handed over to
Serbia on July 13, was not on the run but simply getting his
affairs in order prior to turning himself in. On Sunday, the
tabloid Nacional followed up with a report that Sreten Lukic,
one of four Serb generals indicted last year for alleged crimes
in Kosovo, was preparing to surrender to the tribunal in early
August. A third newspaper said it had indications "from
government sources" that the case of top fugitive Ratko
Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb Army commander wanted for
genocide, would be resolved one way or another by the end
of next month. "Regarding Mladic, he'll either
be arrested in the next month or the state will have to provide
valid proof that he's not on the territory of Serbia and Montenegro,"
the source said. (Reuters 251437 GMT Jul 04)

NATO
peacekeepers in Bosnia on Friday detained the former secretary
of war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic, A statement said Rajko
Banduka was arrested on suspicion of "activities contrary
to the Dayton agreement", the accord that ended
the war and ordered all parties to ensure those who committed
atrocities were brought to justice. Banduka was detained in
the northeastern town of Bijeljina and he was taken to a secure
detention facility for investigation. (Reuters 231157 GMT
Jul 04)

OLYMPICS

U.S.
forces on standby in case of terrorist attacks during the
Olympics may be based in Greece despite the host's public
insistence that no foreign troops will be deployed on its
soil, NATO diplomats said on Friday. NATO agreed on
Thursday to take command of some 400 U.S. special forces personnel
during the August 13-29 games. Greece already has
assurances that NATO will assist in air and sea patrols and
provide specialist troops to deal with a potential nuclear,
chemical or biological attack. But Washington also wanted
to send U.S. counter-terrorism forces for the games. When
it became clear this would not be possible due to Greek sensitivities,
it pressed Athens to ask for them, as one official put it,
"under NATO cover." "The (NATO) decision
sheet doesn't say whether the troops will be in Greece or
nearby... and so logically you could say that maybe some of
them will be there on Greek soil." Washington's
NATO ambassador, Nicholas Burns, sought on Thursday to dispel
the notion that Athens had come under U.S. pressure to seek
counter-terrorism forces, telling reporters: "NATO
is responding to a specific request from Greece."
(Reuters 231723 Jul GMT 04)

OTHER NEWS

Morocco
has warned Spain that it has lost track of 400 Moroccan Islamist
militants who trained in al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan, Bosnia
or Chechnya, Spanish newspaper El Pais reported on
Sunday. Moroccan authorities gave the warning to Judge Baltasar
Garzon, Spain's leading al Qaeda expert, in Rabat earlier
this month, El Pais said, citing a person who was present
at the meeting. Spanish Interior Minister Jose Antonio
Alonso, asked about the report, neither confirmed nor denied
it but said Spain and Morocco were cooperating closely in
the fight against al Qaeda and there was a constant flow of
information between them. Authorities in Rabat told
Garzon they knew of 600 Moroccan nationals who had trained
at al Qaeda camps but only knew the whereabouts of 200 of
them, El Pais said (Reuters 251345 GMT July 04)

The EU joined the United States in threatening sanctions against
Sudan, hoping to pressure the African country's government
to end the conflict in its western region of Darfur.
Citing "grave concern" at reports of "massive
human rights violations" that some have called genocide,
EU ministers gathering for a Monday meeting in Brussels were
hoping to push Sudan's government and rebel groups to resume
peace talks as well as improve access for relief groups. "It's
almost certain the international community will take further
measures if this situation does not improve,"
Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot, whose country holds the EU's
rotating presidency, said late Saturday after meeting his
Sudanese counterpart, Mustafa Osman Ismail. The 25-nation
EU, the U.S. and humanitarian groups have accused the Sudanese
government of backing the militias, a claim it denies. The
UN plans to send a peacekeeping mission by the end of 2004
to Darfur, a region the size of Iraq with a population of
6.7 million. (AP 260042 Jul 04)